Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is so proud of their new $22 million rest room project near Portage. They got the feds to pay for 90% of it, so I guess it can be considered a stimulus project, kind of like the old CCC facilities built during the Depression.

I had the privilege of using this fancy new facility during my Thanksgiving travels. The ceilings are very high, which means it is probably expensive to heat. The ladies' room felt noticeably chilly. The automatic toilet flushed three times while I was sitting on it. It flushed twice more while I was pulling up and fastening my jeans. I wonder how much more water this facility will waste compared to the old one.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Pope Benedict has made it very clear that he wants to turn back the clock on several matters of church policy and politics. He is backing away from many of the Vatican II reforms. He is aggressively competing with the Anglican communion for priests and parishioners. The Catholic Church in the United States also seems more aggressive in its involvement with secular politics than at any time in the recent past.

The Catholic Church partnered with the LDS Church in a campaign to promote California's Proposition 8. It has brought pressure to bear on Washington, D.C. regarding recognition of same-sex marriage (threatening to close down its charitable service organizations in the District if they are not allowed to discriminate against homosexuals). It is actively opposing health care reform legislation unless it includes abortion restrictions (effectively saying that everyone, regardless of their own religious beliefs, should be forced to live according to the dictates of Roman Catholic doctrine).

Whether or not you think it is a right and proper thing for the church (any church) to get involved with politics is a matter of subjective belief. Right now, I am more interested in the tactics the RC Church is using, and the other tools that Pope Benedict may choose to deploy.

Kennedy is not the first politician to be denied communion for supporting abortion rights. I find it interesting, however, that the RC Church has not withheld communion from politicians for supporting the death penalty (also contrary to RC doctrine) or the elective invasion of Iraq (which caused the death of many innocents).

Thus far, politicians have not been swayed by this tactic. I have not heard of any who have changed their positions in order to get back in the good graces of the church. This may be because most Americans, even Catholics, are uncomfortable with the idea of the Papacy (which is, after all, a foreign government) giving marching orders to their elective officials.

Historically, however, the RC Church had a much more powerful weapon to use against rulers who defied Papal orders. A local interdict was sometimes imposed against an entire jurisdiction -- banning the sacraments and effectively excommunicating everyone within its borders -- until the leader bowed to the Papal will.

It hasn't been used since the days of the counter-reformation (perhaps because the RC Church was afraid to lose market share to the Protestants). However, Pope Benedict has shown himself willing to preside over a smaller but purer flock. Will he go so far one day as to place Kennedy's Congressional District under interdict until he is voted out of office?

Friday, November 20, 2009

Anyone old enough to have seen Smokey and the Bandit may remember that the plot revolved around a bet/dare involving the illegal transport of a regional microbrew with a cult following across state lines from Texas to Georgia in time for a special event.

The beer in the movie was Coors, which became a nationally-available brand not too many years after Burt Reynolds first drove that TransAm. I thought that movie plot was a quaint relic of the past, in today's age of widely available craft beers.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

I read the account of the city council meeting where the $16 million in TIF funds for the Edgewater was kept in the capital budget.

It was reported that the property tax increment from the new development would be approximately $750,000 to $1 million per year. That is very important, since the city cannot count room tax and sales tax revenue toward the TIF payback calculations (since Edgewater will be poaching business from other downtown hotels, whose room and sales tax collections for the city will therefore decrease).

It wasn't clear, however, whether the $750,000 to $1 million property tax increment referred to the city's share of the property tax bill, or to the total property tax bill. This is also important, since the county and school district get a cut of the annual property tax bill (but are not ponying up for the TIF money).

I don't think the $16 million makes sense as an investment for the city in future property tax revenue. The payback will be long, and interest must be paid in the meantime on the $16 million the city will borrow to finance the project.

It may make sense as an economic stimulus measure, to create some construction jobs now and additional service jobs later. If that is the justification for the investment (and it was certainly the reason for organized labor's support of the project), then Alder Satya Rhodes-Conway's attempts to insert some union-friendly requirements on the project make a lot of sense. After all, if taxpayers are forking out money to buy jobs, we should be sure they are family-supporting jobs that will go to area residents (rather than minimum-wage jobs that will be filled by trucked-in immigrants who will send or spend most of their paychecks back home).

How long will it be, though, before Inn on the Park comes to the city to ask for TIF money to remodel and expand, in order to compete with the newly-refurbished Edgewater? Inn on the Park is also past its prime. Will the city be able to deny them a level playing field? Should city government pick winners and losers in a soviet-style planned economy? How many hotels can we afford to remodel?

I can't remember the Michigan Wolverines ever having a season this bad. The amazing thing is that they still hope to go to a bowl game if they beat Ohio State next weekend (which would leave them with a 6-6 overall record but only 2-6 in the Big 10). It's probably a moot point -- I expect the Buckeyes to thrash them soundly.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

To my grandfathers, who both fought in World War II and survived to return home and raise families.

Grandpa T was drafted by the army. He served under General Patton. He rarely talked about the war, but he did give some editorial comments when we watched the George C. Scott movie on television. Yes, he said, Patton really did stand in the open and fire his handgun at that German plane. At the time, every man under his command was hoping the crazy bastard would be shot.

Grandpa W joined the navy when he was 17 (with parental permission). He served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters. He felt better about himself and his life during the war than at any time after his homecoming. His ship was later decommissioned and sunk during an atomic test in the Pacific, which seemed like a metaphor for his troubled life.

Monday, November 9, 2009

An organization called Okeanis has been observing the same group of 600 dolphins for almost 20 years. In September, they captured video of a group of dolphins ganging up and brutally killing a porpoise.

The dolphins corral the porpoise, ram it with their beaks, scrape or rake it with their teeth and drown the porpoise by jumping on top of it. The dolphins then bring the carcass up to the Okeanis researchers, watch them bring it on board and then swim away.

What surprises me most is not the attack, nor the techniques used to kill the porpoise, but the fact that the dolphins then brought the carcass to the researchers. Did Okeanis lure them to do so with a fish reward? How many other interactions have they had with these dolphins in the course of their years-long "observation" of these supposedly wild creatures? The Okeanis website does not give much information on their methodology.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

The creamsicle uniforms and the streaker weren't the only blasts from the past in Tampa Bay today. The play on the field was epically bad, from both teams and on both sides of the ball (or all three, if you count the Packers' special teams). I expected to see Bart Starr on the sidelines.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Anyone who's seen The Wizard of Oz knows that flying monkeys are dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.

The flying monkey is still at large. I wonder if Stephen Colbert will do another "Monkey on the Lam" segment. It seems appropriate, since the case that inspired the series also happened in Madison.

UPDATE: The victim, Baraboo native and former UW basketball player Darin Schubring, is still in serious condition (recently upgraded from critical). Police are following up on some leads (apparently, the assailant was part of a group Oz-themed costume party). The flying monkey must have some pretty long arms to smack the 6' 10" Schubring in the temple.